Today is the day we all re-brand ourselves! A good time to remember we’ve had ridiculous spin-offs as long we’ve had stuff to spin it from.
Come to think of it, the Adam’s family was a spin-off of a New Yorker cartoon to begin with…
Archive for October, 2007
31
Oct
You rang?
28
Oct
A Hole-y Grail
Now that I’ve completed it, I can’t avoid saying something about just how much of an impact Portal has had on me.
As I mentioned last week, it only took playing the first hour of the game to convince me that I had to finish it. But finishing it has convinced me that it’s truly one of the best games of the year, and that 2007 is turning out to be a renaissance in video game narrative.
Portal and Bioshock are, in many ways, two perfect bookends of the same idea. They mix together narrative and gameplay in a way that forces a player to confront his limitations in the artificial world. You are a gimp who can only speak through the gun at the end of your arm, and the game actually uses that in a way that drives the narrative forwards. But these two games choose totally different paths. If both of them were a type of cake, Bioshock is a deep, dark chocolate, with layers and layers of icing. Portal comes off more as a lemony angel food. Light and tart.
One truly unique that Valve’s tasty confection has going for it is that the gameplay isn’t centered around murder as a primary play dynamic. You do end up having to take out some enemies, but the gun at the end of your arm opens portals instead of firing bullets. That means that opponents have to be defeated through guile, and not by trying to get that all important head shot.
Another brilliant post-modern twist that Portal has is the Weighted Companion Cube. (Before going any further I’ll post a mild spoiler warning here.) The game created a loveable character with absolutely no innate personality at all. It’s literally the same as every other cube in the game except that it has hearts drawn on it. And yet by the end of the level where it’s introduced you’ve established an emotional bond that’s developed entirely through the in-game narrative. It’s stunning and so simply done that it almost seems to deconstruct itself when you think about it. I’ve spent the last few days just turning it over and over in my head, and I can’t get over the contrast between the object itself and the ability of the game to bring it to life. And if you don’t think it has been effective take a look at the response.
The Big Daddy in Bioshock is a character that’s very similar to the cube in many ways, from its inherent inhumanity to the the mixed emotions that come out of your interaction with it. But he’s brought to life in a more traditional and direct way. He’s layered and nuanced with animation, design, audio, and deep interaction. It’s fully developed in a way that Portal could never never even imagine. And yet somehow the Companion Cube hits all many of the same notes. It’s a three minute pop song versus the opera. And considering just how derivative and halting the development of video game narrative has been up until now, it’s amazing that we’re getting both in the same year., let alone within a few months of each other.
Hopefully the fact that they’re both successful titles means that we’ll see other games attempt to build on these concepts, and really start telling stories that can only be expressed through games.
23
Oct
Core Logic
The XBox 360 Core Unit was always a poor alternative to the basic hard-drive enabled console. It was a kind of FU to the consumer that anyone with two minutes and the ability to type in a Google search could quickly realize was going to be a poor way to get into next generation gaming. Even if you wanted to save $100, it was going to cost you $50 just to buy a memory card that would actually let you save your games. What they got for their trouble was some bad press and a machine that many stores refused to stock.
With the Arcade 360 Microsoft seems to have actually realized that it pays to treat their audience with a little respect. Packing in a memory card and five decent games, they’ve managed to set it at a price point that won’t make you feel deep regret if you decide to go out and buy a hard drive upgrade later on.
It also means there is a viable next-gen console available for under $300. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
22
Oct
Daddy Issues
It’s tough when your father isn’t pleased with the way you’ve turned out. And Nolan Bushnell obviously isn’t happy with the current state of games.
“Video games today are a race to the bottom. They are pure, unadulterated trash and I’m sad for that,” says Bushnell.
To create the shift, Bushnell is taking his experience as an amusement park game barker, inventor of Pong, and founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese Pizza Time restaurants and rolling it all into a new pursuit - uWink. Instead of creating games primarily played by one lone player, or occasionally two players, Bushnell wants to create an environment for families or groups of adults to have fun.
I think the problem is that Bushnell still sees games as “toys for kids”, and hasn’t understood that the medium has moved beyond that. To him the idea of adult content and violent themes are fundamentally at odds with what he thinks games are for.
For the generation that was raised with games we know they can communicate a lot more.
21
Oct
Orange Box Blues
Valve released the ”Orange Box” last week. If the title is a bit odd it’s because what’s inside of it isn’t actually a “game” at all. Valve has grouped together a collection of two previously released titles along with three brand new goodies and sold them all at the price of a single game. It’s a good idea, but the irony is that the littlest game in the pack has the biggest bang for the buck.
At first I thought I’d be able to put off the purchase for a little while. Maybe a month or so. I played Half Life 2 when it first came out, and while it’s fun to see where the story is going I’m not really aching to find out what happens next. Game narrative can sometimes be compelling, but if I’m looking for story there’s a lot of movies and books that I still need to catch up on before I’m going to worry about what Gordon Freeman is up to lately. And if there isn’t some cool new game design in there (and I’ve heard there isn’t) then it’s not really worth it for me to pop the game into the drive. And while Team Fortress looks good and has some unique features, my itch for mutliplayer action has been pretty well scratched over the last few weeks with Halo 3.
But Portal is something special. If I had to describe the genre of the game I’d call it a “First Person Puzzler”. And if you’ve never heard that term before it’s because no one has made a game like this before. The player is given a gun that lets place two portals on the walls or floors that connect to each other no matter where they are. Each level is a small area where where the player must use figure out how to escape the room that they’ve been trapped in using the portal gun and whatever has been left in the room for them.
I only played it for an hour last Monday when someone brought a copy into the office. But since then I’ve found myself longing to finish the rest of it. And it isn’t just the design. The game has a wicked sense of humor that really enhances the experience.
I tried to fight its siren song, but by Wednesday it was hopeless. I wasn’t going to be able to wait any longer. I had to get a copy.
There’s basically three ways you can get your hand on Portal. The Orange Box for the Xbox 360 is $60. That’s cool, but most of the folks I know are playing it on the PC, so if I’m going to play Team Fortress 2 at all then I’ll want the PC version. For the PC, it’s $50 as a downloadable, but only $40 if you can find a retail copy on sale. And finally Portal can be downloaded for $20 all by itself. But at that point it seems like I might as well pitch in another $20 and get the entire package. After hemming and hawing for a few days I got a copy from Amazon.com, and the game is on it’s way to me now. It’s been a weird decision making process, but ultimately I went for the value proposition that Valve has been hoping consumers would bite on. If would have needed to cover a $30 spread I probably would have just bought Portal by itself, even if the price is a little steep for a three hour game.
In a world filled with blockbuster titles that only marginally add new ideas, it’s been left up to the indie market to create titles that can really be considered cutting edge. Whether the Orange Box ends up being a major success or a noble failure, it’s interesting to see them try.
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